Best Local Bookstore

Blue Bicycle Books

Readers Pick

Jonathan Boncek

Owner Jonathan Sanchez said it best when he wrote about Blue Bicycle Books eight years ago (when it was still called “Boomer’s Books”) for the CP’s Best Of issue: “Shopping here is an experience, a great way to spend time. Nobody calls up FIG and asks if they deliver.” The name may have changed since then, but the experience is the same. In 2007, Sanchez, a longtime employee of Boomer’s, took over the shop with his wife, Lauren, and the two have presided over the 50,000 volumes of books ever since. Want an idea of how tall that stack of books may be? Visualize St. Matthew’s steeple (Charleston’s tallest building) and then multiply it by six. Wowza! Blue Bicycle carries the most complete collection of new and rare Charleston material, as well as every other kind of book you could imagine. They also host the annual YALLFest, Charleston’s young adult book festival. For even younger adults, Blue Bicycle hosts “Write of Summer,” a creative writing camp for kids.